Dr. Varghese has a PhD in Health Economics from the University of Memphis, USA (1997). She was a post-doctoral fellow and then a Senior Fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta from 1997-2002. From 2002-2005, she was the head of health economics team at ICDDRB, Dhaka. Dr. Varghese has over 13 years of postdoctoral experience in Public Health. Her areas of expertise include design of research methods for health systems analyses, cost and cost-effectiveness analysis; economic impact of interventions; and health financing issues.

She has technical expertise and interest in maternal and child health, immunisation, and HIV issues. Her current research projects (as Principal investigator) at PHFI include: 1) Assessment of the child and maternal health interventions under the Norway India Partnership Initiatives; 2) Development of investment cases in maternal and child health across 5 states in India in collaboration with University of Melbourne; 3) Costing of maternal and child health initiatives (SURE START) for PATH. She also led the India team in partnership with the Maternal Health Task Force in organising the first ever Global Maternal Health conference in New Delhi in August 2010.

She has extensive experience in working with both local and international health NGOs, governments, and UN agencies. Her work on health financing, the analysis of cost effectiveness of HIV counselling and testing, and allocation of HIV prevention resources has been widely published at various international conferences. She was member, Scientific Advisory Committee, Research on Visceral Leishmaniasis, WHO Geneva, 2008-10; is on the Independent Review Committee for GAVI, Geneva.